


Atypical Monday

by mustang_eddie



Category: Welcome to Night Vale
Genre: Bruises, Embarrassment, Gen, Humorous Ending, Love Bites, Science, cecilos - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-09-04
Updated: 2013-09-04
Packaged: 2017-12-25 14:06:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,164
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/953998
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mustang_eddie/pseuds/mustang_eddie
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Carlos' asks his colleagues for some help. They're not nearly as respectful as he had hoped.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Atypical Monday

**Author's Note:**

> Second time writing fanfiction, first time doing WTNV! Enjoy! If you have critiques or would like to beta future work, leave me a comment! :) I might include an illustration later if I can figure that ish out.

The lab was busy. There had been the incident with the Ice Rink, and the ice was still refusing to melt. The samples from the trees were changing colors again, much to Guillermo’s chagrin. Jamie was attempting to interpret her interview notes with Old Woman Josie’s angels, but they had turned into ancient Norse runes. Ajay and Jack were drilling into rock samples, and subsequently trying to douse out the spontaneous fires they had accidently set. Anita was filling out piles and piles of paperwork from the Sheriff’s secret police so she could run tests on Tamika Flynn’s blood and nervous system. All in all, an average Monday morning for Night Vale’s scientists. Except, of course, Carlos was late.   
“How hard is it for him to make it into the lab on time?” Guillermo yelled, giving up on the now cinnabar and puce samples.   
“He’s probably lost,” Jack boomed over the noise of the fire extinguisher. “Yet again.”   
“He’s our boss, he should be here,” Guillermo grumbled, grabbing a coke and shuffling over to the futon the scientists had traded for two extra microscopes. The can promptly exploded with far more liquid than was possible for the small can, drenching Guillermo from head to toe. As Ajay, Jamie, and Jack howled with laughter, Anita heard Carlos come in. He wore his usual cargo pants, but instead of lingering around in a t-shirt, he promptly put on a lab coat, burying his hands in his pockets and looking around suspiciously. He walked over to his spot by Anita, and gingerly sat down. Anita thought he looked tired and sore.  
“You okay?” she asked.   
“Yeah! I’m fine,” Carlos said with a start. “How about you?”  
“Oh, you know,” Anita joked, rubbing her swollen stomach. “I’ve been 8 months pregnant for 6 months now. Kinda hoping for a preemie.” He groaned at her bad taste, and then chuckled. That was another anomaly of Night Vale, extremely long pregnancies. Carlos began to analyze some readings he had received on the last meteor shower. The other scientists wandered back to their stations. As Ajay walked by, he clapped his hand on Carlos’ back, and Anita saw his face twist into a grimace. She made a mental note.   
Continuing through the day, she carefully observed Carlos. He was usually quiet in the lab, at least compared to Guillermo and Jamie, but today he was especially silent. Anytime that someone bumped up against him in the cramped space, he flinched. During lunch, Carlos finally walked over to her.   
“I need you to look at something,” he muttered by her ear. “Now.” He stalked off into the large closet, which Anita had turned into a makeshift examining room. The other scientists looked at her. She shrugged, and then walked over to the closet, leaving the door slightly ajar in case something went wrong and she needed help. Or the shotgun Jack kept under his desk.   
Carlos was already sitting on the table, hands pressed together and over his nose like he was praying.   
“What’s going on?” Anita demanded.   
“You have to promise to not freak out.”   
“What could there be to freak out about? I’ve lived here for over a year.”  
“This isn’t exactly like the other disasters.”  
“Well I’m sure it’s not as bad as the Glow Cloud hitting my husband with an armadillo carcass.” Carlos squirmed as Anita stared him down, getting irritated with the strong-jawed scientist.   
“It’s a little personal.”  
“Oh my god, get over yourself. Is it like a growth or something?”   
“No! Just- just don’t freak out, okay?” Carlos warned, as he started to shake off his lab coat. “Promise?”  
“Ugh, fine,” Anita scoffed. “You’re being a baby.” He shook his head with his eyes to the sky, and slowly took off his shirt. Anita tried to hold back a scream.   
Carlos’ entire torso was covered in bruises, bites, and hickeys. The bruises were large, black in the center and greenish towards the edges. They covered his chest, collarbones and upper arms, as well as by his hipbones. Some trailed into the waistband of his boxers, presumably going lower. The hickeys were raised, almost like bug bites, and they peppered his stomach and love handles. They too, were black and sickly green. He turned around; showing Anita what looked like deep claw marks on his back, crisscrossing and zigzagging. There were impossibly large bite marks on his chest and back, and they looked to be oozing some sort of purple sap. There was no way that the secretion was human, anyway.  
Carlos’s colleagues had rushed into the doorway, hearing Anita’s yelp, and were all staring horrified at his injuries.   
“What the fuck is that?” Jamie pointed at the sap. Ajay ran out of the closet space, and they all heard him throwing up into the sink.   
“Shit, son,” Guillermo said under his breath. “No wonder you were late.”   
“Did you get mauled?” Jack asked Carlos, incredulous. Carlos buried his head in his hands, the tops of his ears bright red.   
“Um… not in the traditional sense…” he stammered, looking up at his confused- no, not confused- concerned colleagues. “I, um, spent the weekend at Cecil’s.”   
As his colleagues processed what Carlos had said, Jamie began to giggle. Then Ajay, who returned from the sink slightly green. Then Guillermo. Then Jack. Then Anita. They couldn’t stop, much to Carlos’ exasperation.   
“Guys! It’s not funny, the bites really sting! I think they’re infected!”   
“No, this is definitely funny,” Anita said, wiping a tear from her eye. “It’s just- it’s because it’s you and Cecil. You, being Mr. Science Integrity, and ‘I’m not going to get tied up in some local radio host’s crush on me’. And Cecil, with that freaking voice.”   
“Oh Lord,” snickered Jack. “I thought hiding hickeys in high school was bad.”   
“Listening to the radio’s never going to be the same,” Jamie teased. Guillermo couldn’t talk, he was laughing so hard.   
“You guys are assholes,” Carlos sighed. “Please, can you stop for a second? Cecil thinks I might be allergic to his saliva or something.”   
“He saw this? And kept going?” Ajay asked. Carlos reddened.   
“Well, I might have- you know, gotten caught up in the moment- asked him to keep going…” he stuttered, refusing to look the others in the eye. Their laughing continued.   
“Okay, as your boss, go back to work! Except Anita, help me clean this up. Please.” Carlos finally demanded. The four scientists shuffled out, still giggling. Anita looked at Carlos, who was red in the face. She sighed with a smile and starting pulling out various swabs and petri dishes.   
“You know I’m going to have to investigate your injuries from a scientific perspective.” She stated.   
“Yes, fine. Just please try not to laugh too hard. It’s actually really uncomfortable.”  
“And that means I have to ask you some questions.”  
“Okay, fine.”  
“Starting with, who bottoms?” Anita asked with a smirk. Carlos groaned.  
“Damn you Cecil, damn you perfect, beautiful, man.”


End file.
